Extracorporeal circulation is used as heart adjuvant therapy for heart surgery of patients, or in a state of heart failure, and femoral arterial cannulation is commonly used to supply oxygenated blood. Such femoral arterial cannulation is carried out by surgically exposing blood vessels, but, in many cases, a Seldinger's technique whereby a guidewire is inserted via the skin is used. At this time, a cannula is inserted into the femoral artery in the vicinity of the groin region, and thus the biggest problem is distal limb perfusion. In femoral arterial cannulation, blood is supplied to the upper body part above the thigh of a patient, but distal perfusion decreases or is blocked by a thick cannula. Thus, while a femoral arterial cannula is maintained, blood is not supplied from the legs below the thigh to a distal portion, i.e., the feet, and, accordingly, there may be a risk for necrosis of the legs.
Thus, to prevent the occurrence of these problems, various techniques, such as separate antegrade catheterization, posterior tibial artery cannulation, and the like which supply blood to sides of the legs, are conventionally used, but all the techniques cause complications or breakage of blood vessels, and thus there are technical difficulties in applying these techniques.